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Can Modi keep India’s rail plans on track?

India unveils its first high-speed train but realities of the aging, state-run system threaten to derail the excitement.

India's ailing rail system carries about 23 million passengers a day. Experts say the tracks are poorly maintained and the coaches are in need of upgrading. (Rajanish Kakade / The Associated Press file photo)

By Rama LakshmiThe Washington Post

Wed., July 9, 2014

NEW DELHI—The future has bumped up against the past at New Delhi’s main railway station.

Hailing the advent of a bright new era for India’s 161-year-old rail system, officials unveiled the country’s first high-speed train on July 3, sending it on a test run to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, in which it reached a speed of 160 km/h.

But the realities of the aging, state-run system threatened to derail the excitement, as other trains ran several hours late and disappointed passengers rolled out their sleeping mats on the floor next to spit-stained walls and trash-strewn tracks.

The twin images embody the challenge facing India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, who pledged during his election campaign to modernize the decrepit rail network with new freight corridors and coaches and Japanese-style bullet trains that would criss-cross the nation.

The new high-speed train, set to launch officially in November on the New Delhi-Agra route, travels at just half the speed of the superfast trains that Modi wants to build. But that hasn’t stopped “bullet” from becoming a buzz word here. Officials called last Thursday’s train a “semi-bullet train,” and station workers fondly dubbed it “Bullet Raja,” or Bullet King.

“This is our first step toward realizing the dream of running bullet trains. It shows we can do it,” said Anurag Sachan, manager of the railway’s Delhi division. “We need political will from the top to overhaul our railways. If China can do it, why can’t we?”

But it may prove an uphill task, even for Modi, the get-tough former chief minister of Gujarat state who has pledged to whip all of India into shape.

India’s railways are a story marked by endemic red tape, neglect, poor infrastructure and populist politics, all combining to generate losses of about $5 billion (U.S.) last year.

Modi experienced the politics bedevilling India’s railways firsthand last month when he raised train passenger fares by 14 per cent, a decision no politician had dared take for a decade. His government said the hike was needed to help stem the system’s staggering losses and improve services. But protests broke out immediately, with demonstrators blocking train tracks and burning Modi’s effigy.

The new finance minister, Arun Jaitley, defended the price hike. “India must decide whether it wants a world-class railway or a ramshackle one,” Jaitley said.

In the end, Modi rolled back the jump in fares — but only for city commuter trains.

India’s sprawling rail network has long evoked romantic images of British colonial-era steam locomotives curling through Himalayan towns and extravagant coaches designed for maharajas. But there is nothing romantic about today’s ailing system, which carries about 23 million passengers a day.

The tracks are poorly maintained and are often covered in trash, coaches need upgrading, only half the signals are automated and safety standards are sloppily observed, rail experts say. There are not enough bridges and overpasses at unmanned railway crossings.

Trespassing, a widespread phenomenon, kills about 15,000 people every year, according to a 2012 rail-safety panel report. In addition, about 3,000 people have died in the past decade in train accidents. In some parts of India, ticketless passengers ride on the roofs of trains, and some are electrocuted or fall off. Efforts to ban rooftop travel have gone nowhere.

Sanitation is also generally poor, with station floors crammed with sleeping passengers, dogs and beggars.

“Politicians keep adding new trains, stations and halts to satisfy their voters, without worrying about the capability of the rail tracks, condition of coaches and financial viability,” said Jai Prakash Batra, a former chairman of the Railway Board.

And it’s not just about passengers. Economists say India’s railway system simply does not meet the needs of an aspiring economic and industrial powerhouse. The total rail length is woefully inadequate today, at a little more than 64,000 kilometres, about 12,000 kilometres beyond what the country had when it gained independence from Britain in 1947, Sachan said.

“About two-thirds of freight in India travels on-road because we do not have enough rail tracks,” said Arvind Mahajan, a partner and infrastructure expert at the consultancy KPMG India. “The priority is always given to the passenger trains, so freight trains have to wait. This raises the cost of logistics and makes Indian manufacturing uncompetitive.

India is building dedicated freight corridors with financial assistance from Japan and the World Bank, but construction is running five years behind schedule, officials say. Such delay is commonplace.

In 2007, the country invited private investors for the first time to build electric and diesel locomotives. Companies including GE and Bombardier bid for the projects but a contract has still not been finalized, Batra said.

“It is an archaic organization,” said an official in the Rail Ministry, commenting on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “Instead of decisions, you have endless deliberations. Nobody has the power to make things happen, but everyone can stop work from happening.”

This week, Modi’s government announced it would upgrade 10 train stations and make them look like airports, introduce high-speed trains on nine routes, and begin work on India’s first bullet train connecting Mumbai to his home state of Gujarat.

“Rail is not just a mode of transport; it is an engine of India’s growth,” Modi said in a televised address to the nation Tuesday. “Through the railways, we want to take the country to new heights.”

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